Thursday, May 11, 2006

Did Arabs Also Discover Atlantis?

This revisionist nonsense never seems to end. It must be the result of amoral publicity hounds or those with a serious inferiority complex. First there was the Chinese discovery of America, now some person is saying Arabs beat both the Vikings and Columbus to the New World:

Now some are suggesting that Muslims came to the Americas, possibly as early as the 700s. These researchers argue that Muslims came from Islamic Spain, particularly the port of Delba (Pelos) during the rule of Caliph Abdullah Ibn Mohammed (888-912). A book by a Muslim historian details the story of a Muslim navigator on a journey across the ocean to an unknown land, where they found much treasure. The historian, Abul-Hassan Al-Masudi, added a map of the world to his book, one that contained “a large area in the ocean of darkness and fog (the Atlantic Ocean) which he referred to as the unknown territory (the Americas).

Could an Arab Dhow have made it across the Atlantic and back? I doubt it. This is simply the attempt by some for a backwards culture, which peaked about a thousand years ago, to appropriate the achievements of others. Truly sad.

Crossposted at The Dougout.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Really, who gives a flying f*** WHO got there first? Let's pretend that Muhammed & Co did get there. So what did they DO with it when they found it? Huh? Clearly they didn't make a very big impression locally. Maybe the pueblo Indians were just too advanced a civilisation for the A-rabs to deal with..?

I mean, honestly!

Kiddo said...

I thought that was the Mexican agitators....no, wait, that was "aztlan".....

Kiddo said...

Actually, I need to find my source on this because I have been hearing this one for years now, mostly in Muslim publications. Since moving I have lost all of my back issues of "Islamic Horizons", but I think they used to talk up the "scholars" doing work on this subject. I wish I weren't as senile as an octogenarian, but I am.

I'm glad you posted this though, I'd forgotten about it. There is extremely strong belief amongs Muslims whom I've interviewed that this is the case and the tales also about mating with the Indians. Oddly, just like with the Mormons, none of them seemed to have converted to any religion rooted in the Middle East......but nevertheless, Muslims I've interviewed have told me this crap as well. I'll go see if anyone's online to throw me a quote.

Anonymous said...

This makes a case for the muslims to say "America belongs to us because we were there first," and is further justification, in their minds, for jihad.